By Matt Agorist
New York, NY — Nothing says “culture of corruption” quite like cops committing crimes against their fellow cops. And, perhaps nothing highlights this point better than one of the highest-ranking cops in the country waging an elaborate scheme to steal hundreds of thousands of dollars from his fellow officers.
This week, Edward Mullins, the former President of the Sergeants Benevolent Association (SBA), the union that represents all current and former sergeants of the New York City Police Department, was charged for fraudulently using union funds for personal gain.
On Wednesday, Mullins turned himself in to the FBI and was charged with one count of wire fraud in connection with his despicable scheme. Mullins’ scheme involved using police union funds to live a lavish lifestyle at the expense of his fellow officers.
After his arrest, U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said:
“As alleged, Edward Mullins, the former President of the SBA, abused his position of trust and authority to fund a lavish lifestyle that was paid for by the monthly dues of the thousands of hard-working Sergeants of the NYPD.
Mullins submitted hundreds of phony expense reports to further his scheme, stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from the SBA. This Office is committed to rooting out corruption at all levels of government, and that includes public officials like Mullins who use their positions of power to line their own pockets to the detriment of others.”
According to the Department of Justice, for nearly two decades, from 2002 until October 2021, Mullins served as President of the SBA. As president Mullins was responsible for promoting the general welfare of the SBA’s membership. Instead of doing that, however, this top cop “orchestrated a scheme to steal hundreds of thousands of dollars from the SBA and its members.”
The NYPD’s SBA is the fifth largest police union in the country and takes in millions every year in the form of officer dues. For active members, dues are deducted bi-weekly from their paychecks, totaling approximately $1,300 annually for each member and $600 for retired members. Mullins was using their dues to eat $3,000 meals and buy gold watches.
In 2017, Mullins found a friend in the treasurer, who was lazy with checking his receipts and this thieving cop then saw his moment to pounce. According to the DoJ:
Between in or around 2017 and in or around October 2021, MULLINS defrauded the SBA by using his personal credit card to pay for meals at high-end restaurants and to purchase luxury personal items, among other things, and then submitting false and inflated expense reports to the SBA, seeking reimbursement for those bills as legitimate SBA expenditures when in fact they were not. Altogether, MULLINS was reimbursed for over $1 million dollars in expenses from the SBA, the majority of which was fraudulently obtained.
Some examples of this fraud include paying off his personal credit card and eating hundreds of high-end meals. Mullins was stealing from his fellow cops so he could buy expensive clothing, jewelry, home appliances, and he even stole from them to pay for a relative’s college tuition.
“Ed Mullins allegedly violated the ethics and rules of this department, the trust of 13,000 sergeants, active and retired whom he represented, and the laws of the United States,” NYPD Commissioner Keechant L. Sewell said.
If convicted, Mullins faces up to 20 years behind bars.
Matt Agorist is an honorably discharged veteran of the USMC and former intelligence operator directly tasked by the NSA. This prior experience gives him unique insight into the world of government corruption and the American police state. Agorist has been an independent journalist for over a decade and has been featured on mainstream networks around the world. Agorist is also the Editor at Large at the Free Thought Project.
